Do NIB sealed carts suffer actiplaque?

[tkarner]

If one was to open a NIB, shrinkwrapped Activision box, would the cart label exhibit actiplaque?

 

And if not, how long would it take after opening before the label started to deteriorate?

[R.Cade]

It will already have it even in a sealed box. It's something in the glue...

[jaybird3rd]

Yes. A shrinkwrapped cardboard box is not a suspended animation chamber: the contents are as vulnerable to aging as cartridges that have been opened. This means that "Actiplaque" (due to the label's glue seeping into the paper over time) will still happen, and the sponge inserts used in older Activision games will still suffer from dry rot.

[tkarner]

Ok, thanks. I was just wondering if sunlight or oxygen were the catalysts.

[Keatah]

I understand that a lightly applied label won't have the problem, provided the label isn't touched or the cart handled.

 

Once that happens, the glue is squished around on a microscopic scale, and "seeds" form, areas form, where the glue is pushed into the label. And slow blotting occurs over time.

 

Right or wrong? Dunno.

[Mayhem]

A bit like certain plastics going yellow inside sealed boxes too. Sunlight merely speeds it up, it doesn't trigger it.

[high voltage]

What if you put them in space?

[fiddlepaddle]

A perfect vacuum at absolute zero WILL prevent actiplaque. I've done that for years.

[Video]

Its probably slower, but its mostly the glue. I'm sure oxygen, sun, and handling them speeds it up, but at this point their still 30+ year old carts, and the packaging isn't perfectly hermetically sealed.

[+nanochess]

A boxed cartridge will have slower progress of actiplaque. I suspect even slower if it was at a dry place.